North Dakota entertainment legend Bill Sorensen, also known as ‘Mr. Medora,’ dies at 76 – InForum

MEDORA, N.D. — A North Dakota entertainment legend known as “Mr. Medora” has died.

William H. “Bill” Sorensen of Bismarck passed away Saturday, Oct. 31, his family told The Forum. He was 76 years old.

Sorensen was known for his ability to entertain large crowds. Over five decades, he performed in more than 1,000 shows, including North Dakota’s famous Medora Musical at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.

Billed as “The Greatest Show in the West,” the musical attracts more than 100,000 visitors each year to the Badlands in western North Dakota. Sorensen co-hosted the summer show from 2013 through 2019.

Known for weaving kindness, humor and magic into his performances, Sorensen epitomized North Dakota values while connecting with his audience, Foundation President and CEO Clarence Sitter said. Sitter called Sorensen a selfless performer who wanted to make people laugh and smile.

“He was always doing it for everyone else, never for himself,” Sitter said.

Medora saw a lot of great entertainers, but people loved Sorensen, former Foundation President Randy Hatzenbuhler said. Sorensen could tell the same joke over and over again, and people would still laugh, Hatzenbuhler said. Others recalled his magic performances years later, Hatzenbuhler said.

Sorensen loved his audiences, and in return he made people fall in love with Medora, Hatzenbuhler said.

“He was Mr. Medora,” he said.

Special to The Forum

Sorensen graduated from Concordia College. He was a teacher, and he founded Business Information System, a computer equipment and software company, in 1978.

He owned or launched 16 businesses over his career. He also managed world champion boxer Virgil Hill.

Sorensen was the youngest person elected to the Bismarck City Commission when he ran in 1978. He then served as the Bismarck mayor from 1990 to 2002.

He also represented District 47 in the North Dakota House of Representatives from 1987 through 1990. The Bismarck Event Center celebrated Sorensen’s life on Wednesday by naming the Mayor’s Conference Room the Sorensen Suite.

What sent him on a decades-long path of entertainment was learning to juggle in high school, his brother Jim Sorensen said.

Bill Sorensen then moved on to magic, his brother said.

“I often called him the Barnum and Bailey of North Dakota,” Jim Sorensen said. “He was a performer at heart.”

That reference was to the Ringling Bros. and the Barnum and Bailey Circus, also known as “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

Starting in 1976, Bill Sorensen performed in numerous variety shows called the 4M Review in Medora, entertaining crowds with magic and comedy. He also had a talent for public speaking, his brother said.

Sitter compared Bill Sorensen’s generosity and gentleness to Harold Schafer, another North Dakota legend who revitalized Medora by rebuilding the Burning Hills Amphitheatre and launching the musical in the 1960s.

Schafer’s motivation was to make people happy, his son and former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer said. Whether at City Hall or on the stage, Bill Sorensen wanted to make the lives of people better, Ed Schafer said.

“His motivation was, ‘I just want to make people laugh. I want to make people feel good. I want to have people have good lives,’” Ed Schafer said of Bill Sorensen.

Bill Sorensen loved interacting with children, Sitter and Hatzenbuhler said. Hatzenbuhler recalled giving families backstage tours, and Bill Sorensen would pause to perform magic tricks for children.

“In many ways, Bill was a big kid just like all of us,” Sitter said. “He just had a really unique way of connecting with every child and making them feel special in that moment of interaction.”

Iain Woessner / Forum News Service

Bill Sorenson fought several health challenges. In 2008, doctors gave him two years to live after completing seven heart bypasses, his brother said. His chances of living for five years were 20%, Jim Sorensen said.

Bill Sorensen beat those odds. Stage 4 throat cancer forced him to miss the 2016 season of the Medora Musical, but he returned the next year.

After retiring as host of the musical, he continued to entertain crowds with the Medora Gospel Brunch and A Magical Medora Christmas tour.

Forum Communications Co., which owns The Forum, sponsored the tour.

Bill Sorensen had surgery for kidney cancer last year, his brother said. The performer recently discovered he had prostate cancer, Jim Sorensen said.

Ultimately, Bill Sorensen died from heart failure, his brother said.

Bill Sorensen never complained about his health problems and didn’t want people to know or focus on that part of his life, Jim Sorensen said.

Special to The Forum

“He didn’t have a lot of energy, but no one would know that because he would walk out on the stage and still deliver a great performance,” Jim Sorensen said of his brother.

Jim Sorensen said he told his brother to take it easy, to which Bill Sorensen said, “No, I have too much fun and joy doing it.”

The performer was in the hospital two days before the final show of the Gospel Brunch, yet he didn’t miss the last performance, his brother said.

“It was another example of doing things on his own terms,” Jim Sorensen said.

Ed Schafer said he spoke to Bill Sorensen about concerns that the work for the foundation was killing him, but Bill Sorensen said the opposite, the former governor said.

“I think it is because he loved the audience so much,” Hatzenbuhler said. “I think doing shows kept him alive a decade longer than he probably expected.”

Bill Sorensen died on National Magic Day, Jim Sorensen noted. The day is meant to honor the great magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, who died Oct. 31, 1926, 100 years before Bill Sorensen.

A memorial service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 106 Osage Ave., in Bismarck, with visitation from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the church. Eastgate Funeral and Cremation Service is handling the funeral plans.